Hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), electric vehicles (EVs) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are becoming increasingly popular. In particular, hybrid and electric vehicles are becoming more attractive as battery performance is increasing while production costs are decreasing.
A major reason for the increasing interest in more environmental friendly vehicles is the growing concern about emission of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels.
In order to stimulate the use of hybrid and electric vehicles, many governments and regulatory agencies have introduced subsidies and benefits for such vehicles. The subsidy may be a reduced cost of purchase and benefits may include free parking, reduced tax, access to car pool lanes, access to dedicated low/no-emission zones etc.
In many cases, benefits are different for hybrid vehicles having a combustion engine compared to for pure electric vehicles with only electrical power sources. In a hybrid vehicle, the combustion engine can for example be activated when the electric power source is at low capacity, when additional power is required, or through manual selection. Accordingly it is not always possible to control when and where the combustion engine will operate. Therefore, hybrid vehicles are often denied the benefits offered to pure electric vehicles such as access to no-emission zones since it cannot be guaranteed that the combustion engine will not be active.
However, many hybrid vehicles have an electrical power source and energy storage capable of powering the vehicle for distances of at least 50 kilometers. Since a majority of trips in an urban environment typically are shorter than 50 km, this means that many hybrid vehicles will rarely use the combustion engine. Even so, hybrid vehicles will not be considered to be electric vehicles for the purpose of various benefits.
Accordingly, in view of the above, it is desirable to take advantage of the fact that many hybrid vehicles primarily operate using only an electric motor.